The PASOK MP, St. Parastatides
“Our country must give answers to the big ideas and changes that are coming, at the end of the day you either plan the future or live with it, and we have been living with it for the last few years, it’s time to plan our future”emphasized the Minister of Education Kyriakos Pierrakakis to the competent committee of the Parliamentwhere it started today to discuss the bill for the operation of non-state universities in Greece, adding how “we are practically the only country in the world with a complete ban on the possibility of operating non-state universities”.
In his installation, the Minister of Education, responding to the fire of the minority on unconstitutionality, he argued that the regulatory framework provided for the operation of private universities in the countryis the strictest in Europe, attributed to the opposition “festival of hypocrisy” and “ideological originalism”. “The state must exercise sovereignty in a manner compatible with the constitutional text. That’s what this bill is. We are taking a solid constitutional step. Anyone who says we don’t have practically private higher education is lying. We already have it. At the end of the day, this El Dorado has to be regulated.”the Minister emphasized.
The Minister also referred to public universities, pointing out that 176 of the total 205 articles of the bill concern its upgrading. Among other things, the draft law foresees the upgrading of the Democritus University, the further financial support of the public university, but also the autonomy of the Hellenic Open University. The latter, in fact, provoked the reaction of Euclid Tsakalotou, with the New Left MP arguing that the Minister cannot speak of autonomy when he ordered the exams.
“Our country must give answers to the big ideas and changes that are coming, at the end of the day you either plan the future or live with it, and we have been living with it for the last few years, it’s time to plan our future”concluded the Minister, adding that “we are practically the only country in the world with a complete ban on the possibility of operating non-state universities”.
For a bill that causes a “rupture” of the Constitution PASOK MP, St. Parastatides, pointing out on the one hand that there is the possibility of revising the Constitution within two years, on the other hand that apart from the example of Cyprus, there is also the example of Finland, Denmark and Sweden.
For his part, the deputy of KO Spartiates, Io. Kontis, said that the bill is unconstitutional from beginning to end, and since the legislators did not change Article 16 of the Constitution, we must observe it as gospel.
The atmosphere was electrified, however, when the speaker took the floor Pavlos Polakisalthough not a member of the committee, arguing that the previous leadership of the Ministry of Education was the one that gave “customership” to private colleges.“Kerameos abolished post-secondary schools and gave patronage to private colleges. Let’s not work. You pushed customers into private colleges,” said the SYRIZA MP, with the Minister retorting that “under SYRIZA you legislated Article 54 where you excluded college graduates and the EU came and demanded compliance”.
Tones were raised, again, during the registration of the bodies that will be invited to express their opinion on the bill, next Thursday. The MP of SYRIZA-PS, referring to the request of the opposition parties, for the inclusion of the Athens Medical Students Association, which was finally accepted, said that one of the first schools that are preparing to open is the partnership of the CVC company with a Cypriot university: “It must call them (the medical students of Athens) because otherwise, go and be operated on by doctors who will come out of there” said Mr. Polakis.
The bill is expected to be voted on in the plenary on March 8.
Source: Skai
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